The Low End: Milestones in Vintage Bass Evolution

With my 49th birthday past
and 50 on the horizon, I
recently took time to look back
and reminisce about vintage
bass centricities. Vintage basses
are wonderful things. For many
of us, they are our passion and
our love. Many budgets have
been destroyed, many spousal
brawls have been initiated, and
many dreams have been chased
in pursuit of this passion. They
are 10-pound mistresses we hook
up with every weekend. Many
innovators, inventions, and even
world events shaped and brought
us these beautiful instruments.
This month I’d like to take a
look at my personal top items
that influenced the evolution of
today’s vintage bass, in no particular
order of preference.

Korg GT-6 Tuner: When this
gadget came out in the late ’70s or
early ’80s, other electronic tuners
were already on the market. But
three things made this handy-dandy
tuner different: It was affordable
(if I’m not mistaken, it street
priced at about $79), it fit in your
case, and it was very easy to use. It
sure beat a tuning fork!
Music Man StingRay: Fender
had its Precision, Jazz, and
Telecaster basses, and they
were the industry standard.
Rickenbacker had the progressive
and cool-guy rock scene
sewn up with the 4001. Gibson
had introduced the Ripper/
Grabber/G3 line, and every Gene
Simmons wannabe had one. Me?
All I wanted was a bicentennial
Gibson Thunderbird. Then Leo
introduced this sexy-as-all-heck
bass, which hung and played
like a Fender, had the three-plus-one tuner arrangement, and
boasted the coveted B0-series
preamp. You had the first modern
onboard-electronics bass, and
it was reasonably priced. My
1977 sunburst was purchased
from King James Music for the
princely price of $350 and a
trade-in of my 1972 natural/
maple P bass, for which I received
$225 in credit. This StingRay is
still one of my favorite basses.

Alembic Series 1: The good
folks at Alembic began modifying
basses in the ’60s, and when they
decided to build instruments,
they knew what worked and
what didn’t. The Alembic Series
1 was the first modern boutique
bass. Impeccable construction,
modern outboard electronics,
unsurpassed playability. Wow!
I remember watching Stanley
Clarke, Louis Johnson, Chuck
Panozzo, and all these other bass
masters practically reinvent electric
bass technique on Alembics.
These basses are still coveted and
are still quite expensive. A Rolls
Royce isn’t cheap either.

Music Man Hybrid
Amplification: Leo Fender was a
genius, even if he got it backward
sometimes. Since the dawn of
electric bass, amp builders had
been experimenting with all kinds
of designs. But I believe Music
Man was the first to bring us
the hybrid tube/solid-state bass
amplifier. Sturdy construction,
decent tone, and good portability
were the selling points of these
bass amps. The cabinets looked
really groovy with the double-M
logo and a kinda-sorta modern
pre-CBS blackface look. There
was only one issue—they were
designed sort of backward: They
had tube back ends and solid-state
front ends. Though the order is
reversed in modern amplification,
this was some groundbreaking
stuff back then.

Peavey Combo 300: Peavey’s line
of bass amps was always known
for its reliability and value—you
could buy a huge amp that
looked great for half the price of
an Ampeg. The problem with
the early amps was that you also
got half the tone. Fast forward
to 1982 or so: I’d just bought an
Acoustic 320 head and a Model
408 4x15 cabinet. Thankfully, my
good friend and keyboard player
Joey Lopilato had a ’70s-style
custom van. We used to go to the
Sam Ash music store every other
week, and the store’s bass manager,
Nabil Gaudy, whipped out this
little 300-watt, 1x15 combo—the
Peavey Combo 300. My life was
changed. It was the first amp I
ever heard with modern tone, it
fit in my Corolla, the preamp was
stout enough to stand up to the
B.C. Rich Eagle I was using, and
it was just bitchin’! In my humble
opinion, the Peavey Combo 300
was the granddaddy of modern,
affordable bass amplification. (By
the way, if anyone knows Joey
Lopilato’s whereabouts today,
please ask him to contact me.)

Roger Sadowsky: When I was
entrenched in NYC retail between
1977 and 1978, pre-CBS basses
were hot. The ’70s products from
the major manufacturers were
lousy out of the box and required
a major setup, and possibly fret
work. (Dave Edwards, who was
one of the first luthiers to really
understand bass setups, told me
every bass really needed a fret job
to meet his standards.) Music Man
basses were really taking off, as was
the aftermarket replacement parts
business. Roger Sadowsky was the
first guy we all knew who was hotrodding
basses. Onboard preamps,
great fretwork, deadly setups—he
had it covered. He’d swap hardware
if that was needed or desired.
Back then, pre-CBS Fender basses
were just used basses that retailed
for slightly over what a new, comparable
model sold for, and Roger
was the Jedi master at hot-rodding
these things. Sadowsky was the
pioneer. ’Nuff said.

The 1973 gas crisis: Huh? Just
what does this have to do with
a vintage bass? Well, in ’73 the
vehicles that lugged the behemoth
amplification were phased out
and soon no longer existed. In
1975, there wasn’t a single new
car model that could move big
SVT, Marshall, or Cerwin-Vega
cabinets—unless you drove your
mom’s station wagon to a gig like
a total dweeb. Running out of
petrol was a game-changer, and
it prompted the move toward
smaller amplification. In fact, the
gas crisis has been credited as one
of the major boosts behind IC
chip development. See? There was
a good side to OPEC.

The Dallas and Arlington Guitar
Shows: These two events represent
Mecca for the vintage-bass
aficionado. Each is a music event,
a social event, a vintage bass event.
They’re the original events and the
granddaddies of all vintage-instrument
shows. Through the years
I’ve seen, played, and handled
thousands of basses, met hundreds
of people, and made scores of
friends—all bass players. Bottom
line: Attend one at least once. I
always have room at my dinner
table if you come on out.

While working on this column,
I could have continued for
hours. In fact, I did. I reminisced
over modern accessories, pioneers
(including Mike Matthews,
Larry DiMarzio, and Seymour
Duncan), small-market builders
like Moonstone and Travis Bean,
and larger outfits like Kramer.
Having been involved with bass
since about 1973 (I was 11), I’ve
seen many products, players, and
stores come and go. The shops on
48th street were my calling, and
We Buy Guitars was my altar. Ah,
the memories!

Kevin Borden has
been playing bass since
1975. He is the principal
and co-owner, with
“Dr.” Ben Sopranzetti, of
Kebo’s Bass Works (visit
them online at kebosbassworks.com). You can reach Kevin at
kebobass@yahoo.com. Feel free to call
him KeBo.

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